FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 26th, 2016

PORTLAND, Oregon -- Unite Oregon applauds Oregon’s law enforcement community and Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum for their commitment to reduce drug possession to a misdemeanor.

In Oregon today, even minor possession of some drugs is automatically considered a felony, which carries the substantial risk of jail or prison time. By reducing minor possession offenses to misdemeanors, up to 4,000 people per biennium could avoid the devastating effects of being convicted on felony drug charges. In Oregon, as in every community in the United States, incarceration disproportionately impacts people of color, rural, and low-income communities.

“The War on Drugs has been a failure,” said Kayse Jama, Executive Director of Unite Oregon. “Drug policies have devastated our community and contributed to the mass incarceration of people of color and low income communities. In addition, drug policies work against people who are struggling with addiction. Existing policies make it almost impossible for people to find safe and secure housing, meaningful employment, and recovery-related care. As a member of the Attorney General’s End Profiling Work Group, I commend the law enforcement agencies’ drug policy reform recommendation. Given what we know about incarceration, this could have a significant impact on reducing drug convictions in our state."

However, this does not change Unite Oregon and over 70 other groups’ expectations to overhaul the criminal justice system, including ending profiling by law enforcement. We urge the Oregon State Legislature to pass meaningful End Profiling policy changes during its 2017 session that include drug policy reform, mandatory statewide training of law enforcement, recording pedestrian and vehicular stops, and new accountability practices. Unite Oregon looks forward to working with lawmakers and stakeholders to reduce the devastating impacts of incarceration and profiling on our communities.

Unite Oregon's profiling issue brief makes recommendations to the Workgroup on the Prevention of Profiling by Law Enforcement (WPPLE) in four core areas of police reform: Data Collection, Analysis and Reporting: Accountability Mechanisms: Training: and Procedural Justice. You can read more about it HERE

###

Endorsing Organizations of the End Profiling Community Coalition

1000 Friends of Oregon

Justice & Witness Ministry team

Planned Parenthood Advocates of Oregon

AFT Oregon

KBOO/Western Regional Advocacy Project

Pacific NW Regional Council of Carpenters

Ainsworth UCC

LULAC

Portland Jobs with Justice

AMA

Momentum Alliance

PSU Las Mujeres

Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon

MRG Foundation

Rural Organizing Project

ASUO

NAACP of Lance County

Sankofa Collective Northwest

Basic Rights Oregon

NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon

SCAFE

Bus Project

NAYA

The Intertwine Alliance

CAUSA Oregon

Northwest Workers' Justice Project

Transit Justice Alliance

Central Pacific Conference of the United Church of Christ

Office of Youth Violence Prevention

Unite Oregon

Common Cause

OHEA

UO MCC

Community Alliance of Lane County

OPAL

UO MEChA

Community Alliance of Lane Tenants

Oregon AFL-CIO

UO Multicultural Center

Consult Hardesty

Oregon AFSCME

Upstream Public Health

Criminal Justice Policy Research Institute

Oregon SEIU

Urban League of Portland

Don't Shoot PDX

Oregon Education Association

Voz Workers' Rights Education Project

DPO Latino Caucus

Oregon Justice Resource Center

Western States Center

Enlace

Oregon Latino Health Coalition

Womenspace (Eugene)

Equity Foundation

Oregon Nurses Association

Wozani

Fair Shot For All

Oregon Research Institute

YWCA

Family Forward Oregon

Oregon Voice

Forward Together

OSCC Co-Board Chair (UO)

Groundwork Portland

Portland African American Leadership Forum

Impact NW

Pac/West Communications

Interfaith Movement for Immigrant Justice

Partnership for Safety and Justice

Japanese Americans Citizens League

PCUN

Led by people of color, immigrants and refugees, rural communities, and people experiencing poverty, we work across Oregon to build a unified intercultural movement for justice.

Unite Oregon represents the merger of two strong organizations – Center for Intercultural Organizing (CIO) and Oregon Action (OA) – who together have decades of experience organizing immigrants, refugees, people of color, and low-income Oregonians to address racial and economic disparities and improve quality of life in our state.